Senior Labour And Tory Figures Say General Election Will Go Ahead As Planned

'We should be urging people in defiance to go out and vote'.

Senior Tory and Labour figures this morning said the general election must go ahead as planned on June 8.

Brexit secretary David Davis and shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry told the BBC’s Andrew Marr they felt polling day should not be postponed in the wake of the terror attack on London Bridge, which left seven dead and dozens injured.

National election campaigning was suspended on Sunday, but Davis said he felt the suspension would be short and that the country was ‘locked in’ to voting on Thursday, as to extend the campaign would probably require a change in the law.

“I think actually the public would want us to be locked into that,” he added.

“Clearly we want to respect the people injured and killed...but on the other hand the people doing this are doing this because they despise the freedoms we have.

“Those freedoms can be the freedom to go out on a Saturday night or the freedom to cast a vote.”

Davis said it was too early to say for sure but that the attack could have been an attempt to derail the election campaign.

“Which is all the more reason not to defer, not to deflected and not let this put us off course,” he added.

Labour’s Thornberry echoed his call and said she expected her party to begin campaigning again this evening.

“We think that’s the right balance,” she said.

“We are also acutely aware of the fact that what these murderous people want is to undermine our democracy and values and the very thing we should be doing is continuing with our election.

“We should be urging people in defiance to go out and vote and be involved in this.”

Lib Dem leader Tim Farron said the decision to suspend national campaigning for the day was the right one, but the election must go ahead as planned.

“My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families, and I would like to pay tribute to the emergency services for their professional response in such terrible circumstances,” he added.

“The remainder of this campaign must be a collective showing of defiance and pride in our democratic values.”